Former chief minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee said the latest NUCC dialogue held here yesterday had attracted an encouraging turnout and participation from the floor in the discussion session was very good.
However, he said it was disappointing that the main topic being deliberated, which was national unity, was out of date as it had been thoroughly discussed in the late 80s.
"There were many interesting issues being brought up but unfortunately the discussion centred mostly on national integration, which had been discussed during the National Economy Consultative Council (MAPEN) meeting in 1989 and its report was later documented in February 1991," he said when met after the public dialogue entitled "Grass Roots Voices, Building a United Malaysian Race", organized by NUCC at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Yong, who is Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president and a former NUCC member, said there was nothing wrong about revisiting such an important topic, but those bringing it up should first do their homework and study what had already been covered so that the discussion can move forward.
He explained that the issues involved had been identified and thoroughly discussed and the necessary measures for promoting national unity had also been studied and documented through various forums, apart from MAPEN 1989.
He added that there were many representatives from Sabah during these forums and all that were discussed were included in the MPEN 1991 report.
"A lot of views and suggestions were given during the dialogue this time and this is a good thing. However, I hope the next session would not be another discussion that we will report to the next generation when in fact we already have the same report from the generation before," he said.
In the dialogue earlier, Chief Executive Officer of Yayasan Gerakan Kesederhanaan Global (GMMF), Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, said Malaysians have always had unity all this while but that unity was still far from perfect.
He said Malaysians had not achieved true unity yet due to religious contradictions as well as differences of opinions on other sensitive issues such as security, among others.
"These contradictions prevented us from achieving total unity. Fortunately, we have been able to live in peace until today despite our differences. Inputs from the public gathered from this dialogue are important to enable NUCC to compile its preliminary report by April, before submitting the final report next July," he said.
He noted that NUCC had scheduled 18 series of open and closed door dialogues with various groups, including politicians and religious leaders.
The Borneo Post 2014/03/09
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